Nasim Asgari has made the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize longlist for a collection of four poems titled A Pussy Longing For Forgiveness.

The shortlist will be announced on Nov. 16 and the winner will be announced on Nov. 23.

Tehran-born, Tkaronto-based Nasim Asgari is a dreamer, thinker, seeker and student of the truth. She is a multidisciplinary artist: songwriting, poetry, media arts and performance at the core of her practice. Writing from the age of nine and performing since 12, she has cultivated a voice and words to relay the truth and bring attention to who and what is systemically undermined and dismissed. Nasim has performed, published, and facilitated workshops and events and contributed internationally to art exhibitions, movies, poetry slams, and TV shows. She is currently exploring textiles, writing music, and completing her second poetry collection.

"Forgiving self, forgiving God, love."

"Digging into the self within the context of the world we are placed into. Meditations on forgiveness and truth through grief."

Tehran, Tigray to Tkaronto

Politics back home tastes like crocheted blankets.
Our people on different continents, struggling
differently but struggling still, a crocheted blanket.
We fell in love on occupied lands of Mississaugas

The winner of the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a writing residency and have their work published on CBC Books. Four finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and have their work published on CBC Books.

If you're interested in the CBC Literary Prizes, the CBC Nonfiction Prize opens in January and the CBC Poetry Prize opens in April.